welcome to news4 this week. >> and hello there. i'm wendy rieger. we are going to show you some of the more interesting local stories that made news this week, and among them, manti te'o is not the only one. how some local nfl players are now involved in the so-called cat fishing scandal. she dropped 40 pounds with a few simple tools. one woman shares her secret to losing weight one step at a time. from the federal government to the food network, a local pastry chef follows her passion and finds sweet success. first, we're hearing about

more high-profile athletes caught in the so-called cat phishing scandals. first manti te'o, now a reports that redskins players were fooled by a woman with a fake online identity. jim rosenfield talks to a fan that says he was tricked by the same woman. >> she is was a fan, i was a fan. >> reporter: he says it was their common interest that prompted him to connect on like with the name red ridin' hood. here are direct messages to his cell phone. >> started following her in 2009. she followed me back. >> reporter: he noticed that red riding hood also followed redskin players on twitter, and seemed possibly in direct conversations as well. >> she told me that she knew one guy on the 2009 roster. >> reporter: according to nfl.com, which broke the story,

her actions prompted a warning from team management in december to stay away from her, that she had been using doctored photos of a porn star as herself. redskins player development director phillip daniels is quoted as saying, i think it was all about attention. it was just about being able to talk to players. it was never a situation where guys were giving money or anything like that. no doubt that red ridin' hood is a skins fan and even -- which tweeted its embarrassment, after inviting her on a podcast. >> it's like they're babying them. >> i understand the other football players, you need to pretend to be something else, you want to -- they -- they could help you out our whatever, but i'm nobody. why lie to me? >> reporter: jim rosenfield, news4. he says every time he asked to meet in person, she would come up with an excuse. our attempts to reach the woman at the center of the scandal

have been unsuccessful at the time of this report. now to lebron james, he says he could barely believe it. >> i mean -- we're in the white house right now. this is, like -- hey. mom, i made it. >> james was quite excited to visit with president obama, an honor he and the miami heat got for winning last year's nba championship. they presented him with a basketball and personalized jersey, and praised many for setting a good example for fathers. and a warning now about something we have to do. we have to pay our bills, but you might be surprised how easily one late payment can mess up your credit, and it might happen and you don't even know it. liz crenshaw tells us what to look out for. >> i've spent years building my credit, and being reliable and dependable, and conscientious

consumer. >> reporter: for daria of odenton maryland, it only took one late bill to damage her credit. >> i bought $61 worth of clothes. >> reporter: that's it? >> that's it. >> reporter: she bought a dress to wear to her mother's funeral. the retailer offered a discount if she opened a new discount. the problem? >> i never received a bill. >> reporter: she never received the bill because of a mix-up on her address, and she never thought about it until she got a notice in the mail. >> i got a her from a credit card company saying that my credit limit had been dropped. >> reporter: the reason? she was 60 days late on the bill she never received. her line of credit went from $11,800 to $3,5 hundred dollars. her credit score took a bit hit, from 714, to 651. >> you have to this happen in the -- really in a matter of a few weeks is amazing. >> if you miss a payment by as

also as 30 days, you can't well find that information will be reported almost immediately to the credit reporting agencies. >> reporter: chuck harwood acting director of the bureau of consumer protection with the ferred trade commission warns that reporting and credit agencies terr tightly. >> more than we appreciate. >> reporter: he advises when the bills start arriving, pay off the balance each month, if you can, or at least pay something. if you get behind on a bill, call the credit card company and let it know you're in the process of fixing the problem. finally, don't open more credit than you need. >> keep track of the credit you have opened. if for some reason you don't get a bill, contact the credit card company immediately. >> reporter: consumers have the right to check their credit records for free. annualcreditreport.com allows you to obtain a copy from each of the three major reporting

bureaus every year. >> take the initiative to check on errors, follow up and make sure they're corrected. >> reporter: it forced her to become more vigilant. >> it can happen to you. that's all i can say. >> reporter: liz crenshaw, news4. she was able to get her credit line back, but she is still working to increase that credit score. well, money is no longer a problem for a chef and business owner from prince george's county. tamara thomas runs a candy shop. she just took the top $10,000 prize on the food network competition "sweet genius." pat lawson muse has more on what thomas is cooking up now. >> the bubbles are just on top of each other. >> reporter: in the kitchen of her canned shop, 39-year-old tamara thomas is making lollipops. >> so it's a beautiful grape flavor, then we'll add a bit of lime. >> her lollies are special, many gursing with unexpected flavors.

>> chock las, chili powder, cinnamon s. alternates vanilla -- a little vanilla and we top it with paprika. >> chocolates filled with blew berry jam and sage, and strawberries and basil. >> i love pushing the boundaries. >> reporter: it's that sense of culinary adventure that earned her a spot on the food network's reality tv show "squeet genius." >> it's hard to grasp. >> reporter: competitors had to create three desserts. >> third is chock lat, second is candy, third is cake. >> reporter: her journey actually started years ago when she decided to give up government and nonprofit work to do work that really made her happy. that's when she opened mama coco's delights. the first year in a farmers' market, then relocated to a tiny

antique mall two years ago. since then it's attracted customers around the country, even clients on capitol hill. >> we do custom designed for the u.s. senate. they sell them in the gt shop and in the kiosk. >> and they're all handmade. >> i take the second and turn them all. >> reporter: made in small batches, usually mostly local in2k3wr50edends. >> at some levels, candy making is an old-fashioned craft, and i want to respect that. >> pat lawson muse, news4. who says dogs don't have a sixth sense? >> part boston terrier and part angel. how caleb the dog saved her owner from an invisible and deadly dangers. the arts behind a i think that's the house. [ male announcer ] so there's lots of people out there, who aren't happy with their internet. hey steve. did you say, "my internet's so bad, i think it's giving my kids psychological problems"? [ chuckles ] yea.

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. some animals who do some very good work. they need a new space to train there's a program called guiding

eyes for the blind. it puts puppies through the paces to ensure that they makes some good guide dogs for the visually impaired. trainers say their location at the vienna presbyterian church is ideal, but the church unfortunately needs that basement back. >> we do work outside as much as possible, but it is very important that we have a nice room and in a central location in the area. >> trainers say they have to up to a two-year waiting list for the guide dogs. a dog in maryland is being credited for saving a woman from a deadly danger that you can't see or smell. erika gonzalez has this story from germantown, maryland. >> she's part boston terrier and part angel. >> reporter: kristi williamson says she wouldn't be alive except for her 8-year-old dog. >> all i could keep thinking is i need to get through this call and where they can get me. >> reporter: she went to bed

when she abruptly woke her up. >> she woke minneapolis up, just standing there, looking at me. >> reporter: something was wrong. >> my cell fell onto the floor. then i realized my stomach is hurting, i'm feelings nauseous. >> reporter: she called 911, firefighters arrived and got her and kayla out of the house. both had to be treat fold carbon monoxide. where was the carbon monoxide coming from? this is christy's apartment up here. in the grau below, something had left their parked car inside, running for several hours. >> so basically i was laying in a death trap. >> reporter: christy said she never heard the detector go off, so after leaving the hospital, that's the first thing she went out to buy. >> one, i'm so appreciative that i'm alive, and she's alive. and i feel so lucky that i can tell my family how much i love them. >> reporter: in germantown, maryland, erika gonzalez, news4.

and a ground-breaking surgery is giving a wounded war i don't a second chance. coming up, what this veteran plans to do after his double-arm transplant. and we'll tell you why a local woman credits some friends she's never met for helping her she's never met for helping her meet her weight-loss goal.

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in news 4 your health, it's a simple weight loss solution that produced big results. it didn't involved a complicated workout or expensive diet, just sneakers and an internet connection. doreen gentzler shows us the literal steps back to health. >> i couldn't move. i would come home, sit on the couches, watch a lot of tv, walk back and forth to. >> as her hef jest, she weighed 186 pounds. she's 4'11". she's a prince george's county schoolteacher, who says she had reached a point where her weight had taken over her life.

it was time to make a change. >> a lot of things i couldn't do because i couldn't move to do it. >> instead of joining a gym or finding a trainer, the 42-year-old bethesda woman joined a new facebook group, steps to good health, an online community that provides support, advice and friendship to those on a weight-loss journey. >> if you post something, somebody is always there to post right back, telling you hey, good job. >> people host i need new sneakers or it's been a rough day, are or a good day, or look what i found to do. so it's a great tool. >> the site also gave deutsche inspiration to get moving. she started walking through the has of her apartment building, up flights of stairs and on the treadmill. she does it during the morning, during the day at school action in the evening, counting her steps with the help of pell dom start. >> two days a week i walk 25,000. on sundays i climb flights of

stairs, on wednesday and saturdays 25, and the rest of the 75 flights. >> reporter: that's helped her lose more than 40 pounds. >> walking was work, because it's something i can do, and walking has many, many benefits to it. it keeps your mind, keeps your health and keeps you active. >> reporter: while it's been her method for weight loss, it's the support from her facebook group that's been her motivation. >> it's vital. if i'm having a bad day or hey, i can't do this, or i can do this, or hey, has anybody tried this, the answer is right there. >> reporter: doreen gentzler, news4. wow, 100 flights of stairs. deutsche says she hopes to lose another 25 pounds action and she's going to keep on walking to get there. well, this is an inspiring journey, and a medical miletone for a veteran. bronnen morocco held a press conference after undergoing a

double-arm transplant. he will now spend several years working six hours a day in rehab to regain nearly the full use of his arms. morocco lost all four limbs in an explosion in iraq four years ago. a team of surgeons attached his new arms in december. six weeks later, he was able to wheel himself into a room of reporters. >> i feel like i'm getting a second chance to start over after i got hurt, so i'm -- i'm excited. excited for the future to see where i can go with it. >> he has big plans. he wants to drive his car against and eventually complete a marathon using an arm bicycle. this is a new exhibit that doesn't paint a pretty picture. artists on both sides of the gun control debate share their thoughts and work inspired by the tra

gymnast gabby doug laws made history. now she's giving some of her

personal items to the smith sonia. she donated wrist tape and uneven bar grips that she used. doug laws is the first african-american woman to win gold in the gymnastics individual all-around. a provocative art exhibit about gun violence is now open in a small gallery off logan's circle in d.c., called the newtown project. the gallery owner knows what it's like to be shot. this exhibit is designed to be piercing. >> reporter: children's building blocks splattered with blood, a gun press bed someone's temple. a child's image against the u.s. constitution, his feet blown off. >> there are no pretty pictures. >> reporter: charles crowd owner of the gallery on 13th street, said these images are supposed to make you reaction, maybe even recoil. >> it is provocative, and that's what art is meant to do. art is meant to make people

think. >> reporter: krouse, a former journalist has felt the pain of a bullet wound. he was traveling with lee oryan in jonestown in 197, and jim jones' followers opened fire on them on the airstrip. >> i've been shot with a gun similar to what was used in newtown. >> reporter: 35 years later, this exhibit is a direct response to the newtown connecticut massacre and the gun control debate it's spawned. >> because i think our trauma is borne individually and in very difficult ways. >> reporter: this artist did a work cause simply lost. >> there's words that say look for the light, which comes from william cohen's anthem. it talks about in every door there's a crack of light. from this dark loss, we can look into the light, and find, you know, the future. >> reporter: for one artist, this debate is not for or again. >> i was brought up using guns.

>> reporter: brian peet rho comes from a family of hunters in central pennsylvania. >> we can talk about what is proper use and improper use. >> reporter: american art has often been vocal and radical. kraus says it's supposed to be openly political, to motivate public opinion, stir the debate, a constitutional conversation arguing about the second amendment, with the freedoms of the first. and no one gets muffles. this exhibit is free, but the art is for sale, and most of the proceeds will go towards groups that are pushing for gun control. you can find the details on nbcwashington.com. search "newtown project." that's all for "news4 this week." i'm wendy rieger. thank you for joining us. we will see you again next time.

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